Verbal acceptance of offer on my house

p00hsticks

laidbackgjr wrote: »

I would say anything more than a week between exchange and completion is unusual. Again why should your buyers start to spend money when you have no where to move?

Personally I'd disagree - I'd say that a month or even longer is fine - although obviously it depends on the particular circumstances of the seller and buyer.

For a start, I wouldn't advise FTBs who are currently in rented to be handing in their notice to their current landlord prior to exchange, and so to avoid them having to pay both rent and mortgage that'll mean at least a month gap between exchange and completion.

Nor would I personally be wanting to start engaging removal companies, utility comanies etc until after exchange - so again my personal preference is for a minimum of a few weeks between exchange and completion.

The key point is that a firm date for completion is agreed at the point of exchange.

duchy

Fifteen viewings and only one offer....and you want to risk this buyer....... (who is a first time buyer so no back chain to cause problems) I'm sorry but you are nuts !
Offer 2% below asking price is good especially from a buyer in a strong position in the current market.

Either you don't really want to move -in which case withdraw now and stop messing your buyer around-or get busy finding your new property. Twelve weeks between exchange and completion is unlikely to be agreed --a month is usually possible-so buck your ideas up and get househunting (and I honestly hope you don't find a vendor who behaves towards you the way you have considered acting towards your buyers)

T

lessonlearned

Nan63 - you are coming over as being very inflexible and rather unfair. You cannot dictate all the terms. You have to bend a little.
Not only are you at risk of losing both prospective purchasers and vendors, no-one is going to take you seriously.

Your purchaser will not want to spend good money until they know you have found a property. If you mess them around they will walk.

Selling and buying at the same time is a juggling act at the best of times, someone who is intractable just screws things up. Flexibility is key here.

You are accusing the buyer of not being committed. They put 3 offers in to secure your house, how is that not being committed - they obviously want your property. This puts you in a strong position, however it is not wise to overplay your hand.

Now it is time for you to show some commitment too. You need to find a house, you need to take yours off the market, you need to appoint a solicitor. You need to do all these things pronto.

Re the survey to your house.

Provided that a surveyor is instructed then the buyer cannot be blamed for delays in the survey taking place. The buyer cannot force their pace, neither can you. They will survey when they are good and ready. At the moment there appears to be a few delays because the market has been busier of late. Putting a 2 week time restriction for a survey being completed is unrealistic.

A 12 week delay between exchange and legal completion is also totally unrealistic. The only times this occurs is with a new build when you exchange contracts and then wait for the property to be build complete.

phoebe1989seb

Two weeks to arrange a survey or the house goes back on the market sounds crazy to me - whilst I accept that some buyers get their surveys arranged PDQ, our buyers in 2011 took five weeks to get a Homebuyer's Report arranged, then a further four days before it was carried out.

Nothing to do with us delaying finding a property to move to either, as although we'd not found anything when they offered (only two weeks into marketing and rather unexpected tbh), we had started short-listing houses on RM and were ready to start looking in earnest as soon as their offer came in. We then offered on a house within the next week - despite our search area being some 200 miles from our then location........

I just think that some lenders can be slower at arranging valuations/surveys and do it at the end rather than the start of the process perhaps

IMHO, a week between exchange and completion is the norm - we've bought six times and have never had longer than a week personally (even when having to organise long-distance moves with a veritable mountain of stuff!), although if it's stipulated early enough in the process (and all parties are in agreement), I guess a month is doable........12 weeks does seem like overkill though

StuC75

12 weeks between exchange and completion seems an absurd amount of time. Many lenders will only give a mortgage offer that are valid for a particular length of time, so the buyer would run the risk of there offer running out!

If I was the buyer I would be looking for much shorter time - or that you should sell & then make other arrangements such as renting so as not to delay matters.

You are looking for a lot of compromise from your buyer - whilst also wanting to see how you can get more for a property \ price that no one else has been interested in..

NAN63 wrote: »

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I think it may take me a while to find a property so I hope to have 12 week period inbetween exchange and completion. Should I appoint a conveyancing solicitor now so that they can deal with estate agent from now on?
Many many thank yous!

Dimey

OP, the buyers solicitor is bound to advise them not to accept a 12 week gap between exchange and completion.

The buyers will soon be expecting to hear that you have a property to go to. Commitment goes both ways.

NOW is the time you should be looking. Don't lose the sale. If you can't find somewhere in the time frame then exchange and complete as normal but move out and stay with friends or family, contents in storage.

That way you become a cash buyer (mortgage approved) and puts you in a great position to offer a lower price on the house you find, for a fast move.

hazyjo

Dimey wrote: »

That way you become a cash buyer (mortgage approved) and puts you in a great position to offer a lower price on the house you find, for a fast move.

Just to clarify - it would make you a 'chain free' buyer, not a cash buyer (that term really shouldn't be used if a mortgage is needed). Didn't want you telling EAs that you're a cash buyer and peeing off them and vendors when they find out you're not.

Jx

Soot2006

I bought at this time of year 4 years ago ...

Offer was accepted quickly, mortgage and survey arranged that same week.

Then took 5 WEEKS for the survey to actually happen. Vendor was getting very stressed and mumbling about going on the market, but thankfully our solicitor convinced theirs that it really wasn't our fault at all as survey had been arranged and paid for. As survey didn't find anything untoward we exchanged 2 days after and completed 1 week later. Talk about going from stress, stress, wait, wait, patience to GOGOGOGOGOGOGO.

Things can move slow then they can move quickly. In your situation it seems more likely that you will end up waiting 12 weeks between survey and exchange than between exchange and completion. 12 weeks in which the buyers might be keeping an eye on the market because *why not?* If you do convince them to exchange and ahve 12 weeks betw exchange and completion, what happens if your purchase doesn't go through quickly enough, if YOUR survey takes time or finds something wrong ... you'll be in the same situation of needing to move into a rental, etc ... and you'll have dug your own grave for it!

witchy1066

I have read this thread with great interest, as a prospective buyer ,

and hope your buyers are not reading it, you are coming across as uncertain seller ,"house on the market to test the water"

I do hope your "buyers" are looking at other property, while you make up your mind ,

commitment on your part needs to be shown also,

at the end of the day you have nothing to lose, if they pull out, you just remarket, nothing lost except a few weeks , which is nothing as you have not yet found another house but the buyers stand to loose £500 plus

benson1980

Completely agree with lessonlearned. What you want is unreasonable in my opinion. You want more money that what you already say is a good offer, you want them to financially commit when you haven't even found somewhere to live (you're only starting to seriously look this weekend- yet you want them to get a shimmy on with surveys etc?), and you want them to shell out the agreed price regardless of any horrors that might come back from the survey. If I was the buyer personally I'd be continuing my property search and if I found somewhere the same/better with a more reasonable vendor I'd be walking away.